


farewell in all that's yet to come

by AslansCompass



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F, Gen, time lord letters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 17:48:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5300891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AslansCompass/pseuds/AslansCompass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Idris left a letter for her thief.</p>
            </blockquote>





	farewell in all that's yet to come

**Author's Note:**

> Letter from "The Time Lord Letters," #128 with references to #124-127. Set post-Zagreus for Eight, but understandable to non-audio fans.

He pulled a book off the shelves in the TARDIS  library without even looking at the title.  Quiet moments were all too rare, and he wasn't going to waste this one browsing the shelves.

A small piece of paper fell out of the book. 

> My Doctor
> 
> I see you ever day, but I did not think we should ever actually meet. Face to face. In person.
> 
> It is strange, your world of three dimensions, all following a linear temporal course through life. I am glad I have experienced it, but it is not what I would choose. I exist across all of time and space, while you talk and run around in your tiny universe, only ever traveling forwards.
> 
>  But we have seen so much of the universe together, so much of space and time. Ever since I stole you and we ran away from Gallifrey I have taken you where you need to go and looked after you as best I could.
> 
> And I know that you, in your turn, have tried to look after me as best you can.
> 
> I shall never forget you, my Thief.
> 
> Don't you forget me. Always remember that once I was alive, like you. I enjoyed life. It was so much bigger than it looked from outside. 
> 
> Hello Doctor. It's so nice to meet you.
> 
> So very nice.

The note was unsigned, in a strange font somewhere between handwriting and machine print. The writing could only make sense if it was from the TARDIS, but did she do this kind of thing? It couldn't be a trick by Charley--she wasn't that sort of person.

"Is that you, then?" he said, not really expecting an answer.

He read it again, and some of the wariness in his mind dissolved.  The whole incident wasn't really her fault; possession affected everyone differently, but some of the accusations were true.   He did materialize around an exploding time station, had planned to use her to contain an anti-time monster, had thrown them into dangerous situations without considering the risks.

When he was young, he'd taken her for granted, seen her only as a machine; now he assumed they were the same, with the same goals and desires. The whole incident had shown him another side of her, one that he hoped was an exception, not the rule, but how could he know for sure?

> And I know that you, in your turn, have tried to look after me as best you can.

"Thank you," he whispered.  

* * *

One day on Trenzalore, while digging through his pockets, he'd pulled out the old and crumpled paper. The first words hit him with new force, simultaneously reminding him of Zagreus and Idris,  the times his old girl had a voice.  

> Don't you forget me. Always remember that once I was alive, like you.

River's words on at the Library, Amy's farewell through the pages of a pulp novel.  Sarah Jane, grown wise through the decades.  And Donna, brilliant, clever Donna, all those wonders clipped out, so he must remember for both of them.

"As if I ever would," he murmured.  He'd used to write letters to Clara, but he finally had to stop.  People just kept getting old and dying--it was too much to remember.  But the TARDIS--that blue. bigger-on-the-inside box.  

"It's always the two of you, isn't it?" Amy had teased him once. "A boy and his box, off to see the universe."

Except it wasn't. And this wasn't the first time he'd tried either.  An exploding TARDIS powering a dying universe,  sending her to earth to be forgotten... sometimes he wondered if the old girl would rather have been left on Gallifrey, forgotten.

He almost imagined he could hear her materialize. He glanced across the square from force of habit, but--

wait, there was something there.  The faint buzz of atron energy, the wonderful wheezing, rasping sound...

> Hello Doctor. It's so nice to meet you.
> 
> So very nice.
> 
>  


End file.
